Town and country
Peter Theobald ponders the difference between urban and rural birds and whether either presents an easier opportunity for him and his shooting partner
Regulars will know that many of my permissions border some much larger towns, which over the course of the past 25 years have become the homes of equally large populations of pigeons.
As such, I thought it would be interesting to compare the behavioural differences, if any, of urban over country birds.
Urban pigeons are used to human activity, living in close proximity to man, mostly ignoring traffic whizzing around within feet of the verges on which they may be feeding.
That is not to say they trust humans once they head out to arable fields. That said, they do not scrutinise every hedgerow for your hide, or even a bush in the middle of their ‘restaurant’ that was not there before.
Nor are they overly fussed if your vehicle is only parked 100 yards from your set-up.
Approach
All of this holds provided they do not spot you, in which case they will of course react just like any other pigeon. The biggest advantage for what we do, and the one that enables us to take larger than average bags from urban birds, is the fact that the flightline is not coming from one location but could easily be approaching on a half-mile wide front.
This, in turn, usually means they tend not to arrive in flocks, but in the ones and twos that make it easier to kill large numbers. In these situations, it is not uncommon for us to account for up to 50% of the resident flock, particularly when they are hell-bent on a certain field.
We always used to think that urban pigeons were easier to decoy because they were less wary than their country cousins, but I have concluded that this is not the case.
When pigeons are resting in a wood or a row of trees it is immediately obvious when one of them sets off to feed; other birds follow the same line in due course, creating, potentially, a very tight flightline.
When these birds arrive at their chosen field, they will already know where their mates are feeding, and, hopefully, seek to join them.
Thus it can be crucial to get as close to the flightline as possible when decoying country birds, as they are likely to ignore your set-up if it is not where they expect it to be.
Compare this with an urban pigeon. When he leaves his home, he is likely to be acting independently, and though he knows what field he is heading to, will have no idea where his mates are until he gets there.
Being sociable, he will join his friends as soon as he spots them. This means that you should be focusing on finding where the bulk of the birds enter the field, not the right spot.
Disadvantages
Now for the disadvantages. The recurring one being is that with urban birds you are nearly always going to be shooting near
“Urban birds often approach on a half-mile wide front”
houses, roads and footpaths, all of which have to be given due consideration before setting up. At best, your arc of fire will be restricted and at worst you will sometimes have to walk away from the situation entirely. Wind direction can have an enormous effect on where we set up, not to get the birds decoying nicely, but to minimise the noise of our shooting rattling nearby houses.
For this reason alone we seldom shoot at weekends. Very rarely do we have the luxury of the traditional ‘wind on our backs’ situation. The summer months, when people are more likely to be out in their gardens, are usually the most difficult and we will often inform the local police that we are going to be out and about shooting.
Most people have no interest that we are shooting pigeons but just need reassurance that the camo-clad guy prowling round with a shotgun is not up to no good. The same goes for walkers, who often walk straight past our layout, head down, looking at their phones, totally oblivious to the spinning and flapping of our machines.
Provided we have a good view of people approaching along footpaths, we are fairly laid-back about shooting near them. We never get into discussions with walkers, or appear aggressive, as this can lead to a tense situation. Usually, once it has been explained why we are killing pigeons, most people just shrug and move on, though there have been occasions where we have simply packed up because it has not been worth the hassle.
We had such a situation recently whereby 100 acres of rape was being denuded by about 500 pigeons. The land was surrounded on three sides by houses and a main road running alongside the fourth.
Pigeons arrived over the houses and dropped straight in, no more than 50 yards from their gardens. It looked impossible when Paul and I surveyed it one dull morning in December but Paul, with his back to the houses and the wind in his face, was prepared to give it a go.
The birds were so cosy and confident that he was able to pick his shots, scoring an unexpected 85, with me chipping in a further 51. He did say he would have doubled his tally had it not been for the procession of walkers crossing the field.
Boosted by our success, we tried again recently and reduced the population by a further 58 birds. Paul has always said he enjoys a challenge and this situation really tested our skills.